Ghost Hunt: Prompt Fills
by One Autumn Leaf
Summary: Just some prompts that I stumbled on while browsing Tumblr, as well as some plot bunnies that need an outlet. One-shots.


**GH Prompt Fills**

#1 Ghosts on their paycheck

I'm all for ghosts who are nervous about their first haunting, but I'm also all for ghosts on their millionth haunting, who are just showing up for their paycheck at this point.

"You're on big house in the woods duty again, Charlie."

"Ugh. Let me guess. Suburban white family. The dad's all like 'this move is good for us'."

"Yep."

"Listen, I'm just gonna slam all the doors really fucking loudly and shout 'boo'."

 _– By dajo42 on Tumbler_

* * *

Liberties were taken with this prompt.

Disclaimer: This story is disclaimed. All rights to their respective owners and all that jazz.

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - Charlie**

"Dad, the door slammed. _Again_. We have only been here for five hours, and this was the sixth time during the last two hours!"

"Haru, stop making a fuss. It's either you, your sister, the wind, or just plain coincidence. Or, heck, maybe the house is slightly crooked. Whatever it is, it isn't a _ghost_ or whatever it is your sister's been going on about."

"Whatever." Haru rolled his eyes and stormed out of the room. It was bad enough that his younger sister, Aiko, died just three weeks ago, but his parents (or more like, his father) had decided to return to Japan. Apparently, America brings nothing but 'negative changes' to this family. According to his father, anyway.

"Yumi-nee, do you need help unpacking?" His older sister, Yumi, had taken Aiko's death the hardest. The two had been really close, and Aiko had been on her way to Yumi's middle school when the accident happened.

"No, thank you Haru. I'm alright." _Liar. You don't sound happy at all._

"Oh, alright then. Did you hear? The door slammed again." He wasn't particularly fond of Yumi's endless rants about ghosts, but he understood that she just wanted to protect him – she didn't want to lose both of her siblings.

"Again? How many times does this make?" Yumi looked around worriedly. "I _told_ dad that this house is giving me bad vibes! Oh no, what do we do? It's probably a vengeful ghost!" She looked around her room, before she located an – as of yet – unopened box. "Here, take…," she rummaged around, "this!"

Haru took the offered object, and looked at it for a second.

"Nee-san, this is a star," he deadpanned.

"No, no. I mean, yes, it is, but it's a _pentagram_. It's not an ordinary star."

"A… pentagram?"

"Yes! It wards off evil spirits. Just keep it in your room, and you should be fine." She smiled at him.

Haru highly doubted that, but if it made his sister happy, he was willing to play along. Also, this was the first _true_ smile she had given him – or anybody else for that matter – in the three weeks since _that_ incident. Before they were all just fakes, and he would do just about anything to make her keep her smile.

"All right, thanks Yumi-nee. I can sleep peacefully now," he told her with a smile of his own.

"That's good." She checked the time on her wristwatch. "You should also go to bad sometime soon, it's already one in the morning. Why are you even awake?" He looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"How can I go to sleep if all of you are still unpacking and creating noise?" Yumi blushed at this.

"You're right. I'll go tell mum and dad, and you go get yourself ready for bed, alright?"

"Sure."

Half an hour later every light in the house was switched off and the four residents were lying in their beds.

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain ghost was having a heated discussion with what appeared to be the toilet.

" _Harold, you didn't mention the messed up origins!"_

" _What 'messed up origins'? They are a perfectly normal family. Charlie, all you have to do is your usual gig, and that's it. Don't you have a vacation lined up sometime soon?"_

" _No, I get my next one in fifty years. Edward's the one going next year, lucky dog."_

" _Ah, well, anyway. Just… rattle the windows, or something. Why are you so concerned about this?"_ Charlie almost rolled his eyes at his friend's words.

" _Because I can't! I heard the parents talking, they just moved here after their youngest daughter died!"_

" _Oh."_

" _Yeah, oh. See, I can't do anything to scare them away… I'd feel bad."_

" _Charlie, don't make such a fuss. Just whisper 'boo' to the parents or something, let the light flickers, and you are done. It's unfortunate, but they are on your list. Scare them and you are done, and they can live on in peace."_ If it was so easy, there's no way Charlie wouldn't be doing that right now.

" _Yeah, but – "_

" _Sorry, no time. I got an emergency on line five. See ya around, Charles."_

Charlie just sighed when he noticed that Harry had cut the line on him. Oh well.

He ghosted into the bedroom of the parents, ready to just slam some doors, when he heard a whispered conversation.

"Do you think it will be alright?"

"Everything will be alright, darling, just wait. This house will be perfect for the start of our new life – and we will leave the shadows of the past behind us."

"Alright, I'll try." Silent tears were running down the woman's cheek, and the man gently wiped them away.

"That's all I ask, Marie. That's all I ask." They fell asleep like that, laying in each other's arms, looking for protection and warmth, desperate to make it through this dark spot of their lives.

 _Oh man. I can't do anything to them now… Guess I'll hang out here for a while, until I can spook them without scaring them away._

What Charlie didn't account for, however, was that Yumi knew a certain Japanese medium with ties to a certain paranormal researcher. He also didn't account for said researcher to turn up with his ghost hunting group three days later on the steps to the house.

 _Oh lord. Life has just become complicated._

* * *

When Haru opened the door after hearing the doorbell, he didn't quite know where he should look first. A really odd group greeted his sight, after all.

There was a woman with fiery red hair shouting at a – relatively normal looking – man besides her who shouted right back. Then there was a tall, black-haired male who looked like he wanted to be anywhere _but_ here, next to a shorter man with the _exact same_ facial expression.

Further in the back was a foreigner with blond hair and a serene expression, and next to _him_ was a… girl in a kimono. At least that's what he thought it was. He wasn't as in touch with the Japanese culture as his mother or sister, but he was fairly certain he once saw Yumi in one. The girl was holding the sleeve to her mouth – _was that a custom in Japan?_ – and looked fairly haughty, all in all.

Standing even further back was a boy about the same age as kimono-girl, who looked fairly normal. He had glasses, black hair, and wore normal clothes.

In front of him was a girl who looked to be about Yumi's age. She seemed to be the most normal of all of them, with a nice smile and a general feeling of _kindness_ around her.

"Hi, I'm Mai, and this is SPR – Shibuya Psychic Research. That guy over there," she pointed at the smaller of the grumpy man, who seemed to get _even grumpier_ about being called that, "is Shibuya Kazuya, our president. She," Mai pointed at the Kimono clad girl, "is a friend of Yumi-san. Would it be possible for us to come in?"

"Sure," he shrugged and led the way to the living room. After they were all seated Haru left to get his sister.

"Yumi-nee," he knocked at her door.

"Come in!"

"Yumi-nee, a strange group of people is waiting for you downstairs."

"A group of people?" Yumi sounded confused.

"Yeah, they called themselves SPR or something, and a girl in a kimono was introduced as your friend…" He trailed off at the end, wondering if he should have let them in.

"Ah, it's Masako-chan!" Haru blinked. His sister was squealing. _Squealing_. Like one of those annoying elementary students.

"Ah, well, then I'll go and do my homework…"

"Alright. Be sure to come down for dinner!" Haru just nodded in response, walking over to his room and taking out his math homework.

Well, 'homework' was probably the wrong word. After all, he hadn't received any material from the Japanese school yet, and wouldn't start attending it until next week. Instead, he was going through his American textbook, doing some self-study in order to avoid falling behind.

After he had been working on it for about an hour, he took out a Japanese novel. He still wasn't that great at reading Kanji, after all. Haru noted down the words he couldn't read, and would go over them with his mother or Yumi after dinner, depending on who was free.

Once he heard his mother ring the bell that signalized that dinner was ready, he took his slippers, threw on an extra hoodie, and put on a second pair of socks before he left his room. After all, the dining room was always extremely cold in the evening for whatever reason.

The only place that was colder than the dining room was the bathroom during the night – you can actually see your breath in there.

* * *

When he saw what his mother had prepared for dinner, he almost sighed. Pizza. Again. It seemed like it was some sort of obligatory 'we just moved, so we _have_ to have pizza every meal' thing.

Whatever the reason, he was sick of it, and he picked on his slice.

He found a huge amount of amusement by watching the two grumpy ones eat, however.

The taller of the two ate a slice with a resigned expression, and didn't touch anything afterwards. The smaller of the two glared at his serving like it had personally offended him, and launched into a tirade about _nutritious_ and _healthy food_ and the _consequences of malnutrition_ when the kind girl whom he spoke to at the door had the _'audacity'_ to ask him why he wasn't eating.

In the end, the brunette sighed and shook her head, before telling him to _suck it up_ and _eat at least something, you are being rude_ , to which grumpy glared at her and the arguing male – the one who stood next to the redhead – when he laughed and said _"when isn't he?"_.

Apparently, that was a ridiculously funny joke, as almost everyone – minus his parents, who also didn't seem to know what was going on, and the blond, who just smiled apologetically – burst into laughter. Well, grumpy-the-tall smirked a bit and kimono-girl held the sleeve to her mouth again, but her shoulders were definitely shaking. Just a bit, though.

After a while the dining room turned silent once again, until grumpy-the-small turned to his parents to ask them a question.

"Tsukoto-san, is it always this cold in here? There is a huge deviation when compared to the other rooms. This temperature is especially notable considering that it is summer, and it should be next to impossible to require extra clothing _anywhere_ by these temperatures."

"Well… Eh…" He could see that his father didn't want to answer, and that his mother was embarrassed, so he decided to take the burden from then.

"It's always like this in the room after seven pm. If you go in here at 6.59 pm, the room will have a perfectly normal temperature, and as soon as it's seven, it turns ice cold. Dad thinks the A/C has a problem and doesn't work correctly." His tone made it obvious that _he_ didn't believe that.

"You don't believe that?" Grumpy-the-small – what was his name? Kazuma? Tatsuya? Che, who cares – turned to him with an intense look in his eyes.

"No."

"Then what do you believe?"

"Who knows?" He could see that grumpy-the-small was starting to lose his patience. _If he ever had it in the first place_ , was the helpful comment supplied by his brain. "It's just… There's no way it's the A/C, especially considering that dad checked that thing three times already and called in a mechanic _twice_."

Haru could see the eyes of the man light up with something… was it intrigue? Whatever it was, it caused him to look at Haru even more intense than before.

"Is that so… Do you know of anywhere else where it happens?"

"The bathroom is ice-cold at night after 11 pm, so much so that you can see your breath in the air when you breathe, and the doors slam between three and five times each evening around eleven. It's quite annoying, actually."

"I see…"

After that, grumpy-the-small fell back into a brooding silence, and everyone else – apart from grumpy-the-tall and kimono-girl, of course – got louder. Redhead and the other man – whose names he learned are actually Ayako and Bou-san ( _who the hell is called 'monk', anyway?_ ) – started _another_ fight ( _do they ever stop?_ ), and ordinary-boy (apparently named Yasu) teased Mai.

The blond boy seemed to be trying to establish peace, before giving up and starting a conversation with Yumi. Apparently he was a foreigner, as Yumi called him John, and it seems like he originally was an Australian clergyman. _What is he doing in Japan, then?_

As soon as dinner was over, Haru fled into his room. The group was just too weird for his tastes, and he still had to finish that novel. Originally he wanted to go over the kanji after dinner, but his mother was stressed, his father busy, and Yumi was… occupied. The strange group had taken her with them to one of the empty rooms for 'questioning', whatever the hell that was that they needed her to answer to.

Sighing he sat down on his bed, picked up the novel, and almost despaired when there was a whole page he couldn't read.

 _What the hell? I'm not_ that _bad at kanji! Why can't I understand it? God fucking damnit. I hate Japan!_

He only noticed that he had spoken out loud when he heard a male voice chiding him.

" _Language, young man. A lad like you shouldn't be using such foul words."_

The voice seemed to be ethereal, and sounded quite disembodied. When Haru looked around trying to determine the source, he almost had a heart attack when he saw a pale-to-the-point-of-translucent, _definitely NOT-Japanese,_ old man _leaning over his shoulder and reading the page_!

It was only due to the – very cold – hand covering his mouth that he didn't scream then and there.

" _Shh, you have no reason to fear me. I may be a ghost, but I will do you no harm. Also, you cannot read this page because it is written in code – it is explained on the next page."_

Haru blinked, and tried to distract himself by looking at the passage the old man pointed out on the next side. _Huh, seems like he didn't lie._ He made to pull the stranger's hand off his mouth, and to his surprise, the man immediately complied – he didn't offer up any resistance or tried to put it back.

"Thank you for pointing that out," Haru replied, because, _shit_ , his parents had raised him with manners, and he would be damned if he didn't at least thank the one who helped him – even if it _was_ a ghosts.

" _You are welcome."_

"My name is Haru. Tsukoto Haru. I'm originally from the States." He had no clue why he was talking to a _ghost_ of all things, but the man seemed to be an okay kind of guy. No point in raising a fuss, and the guy didn't seem like he was out to harm him, anyway – besides, it was only polite to keep the conversation alive.

" _My name is Charles, but please call me Charlie. I'm originally from Britain, but I migrated to the States in 1710. I worked as a banker, and now I am an employee_ of 'Spooks – Spooking you RIGHT. Est. at the beginning of time' _." He smiled at the boy, who in turn deadpanned at him._

"That's a very long name. Is all that really necessary?"

" _Be thankful that I spared you the accompanying song – it's really annoying. Believe me."_

"Hn, well, thank you for that."

The two lapsed into silence for a while after that, until Charlie broke it.

" _So, I take it that you are a… student?"_ He looked at the desk. Haru followed his gaze and spotted the textbooks lying on it.

"Yeah, I'm going to middle school. I'll turn fourteen this year… November to be exact. Exactly five months from now."

" _Heh, that's… good to know. I was born someday in April, but I've forgotten the exact date… It's been too long since I last celebrated."_

"That's kind of…sad." The two lapsed into a short silence, before Haru broke it. "Soo… What do you do as an employee of 'Spooks'?"

" _What does it sound like?"_

"Eh… Like you spook people?"

" _Exactly."_

"Then why aren't you spooking anybody?"

" _I'm here to spook you."_

"Charles, your non-answers aren't helping." Haru was starting to get frustrated.

" _I… overheard a conversation between your parents. Three weeks, huh… I wanted to give you a chance to get settled here, in order to prevent scaring you away."_

"That's… considerate of you?" He voiced it like a question, because Haru wasn't quite sure what he should make of a ghost that wasn't spooking somebody. He didn't know if hanging out with the living and talking with them was better or worse, actually.

"But the question still stands – why are you spooking us in the first place?"

" _Because you made it on the list,"_ Charlie stated as if it was obvious. Maybe it was to him.

"The list? What list?"

" _The victim list, obviously."_ At this point, Haru was just barely resisting the temptation of throwing his novel at the ghost's head.

"And _why_ did we make the list?"

" _Hmm, there are multiple possibilities. One: you are bad people. Two: somebody paid for this. Three: you annoyed one of the higher ups. Four: you were drawn by the lottery. Five: somebody who passed away holds a grudge against you. Six: somebody who lives holds a grudge against you. Seven: you pissed off somebody who is drabbling in the occult. Eight: you have bad luck. Nine: you – "_

"Okay, enough already! I get it, we just _are_."

" _Correct."_

"You said that you were just waiting for us to settle in – why didn't you just leave?"

" _I could have done that, couldn't I… But then I wouldn't get paid."_

"Get paid? You are a _ghost_ ," cried Haru in indignation.

" _And?"_

"You don't need _money_!" Now, Charlie was looking amused.

" _Oh, boy, you are still so innocent… Did you think the afterlife is free? It's really,_ really _expensive… You better start saving money."_

"What?!"

" _And you only get a vacation once every seventy years_ …" Charlie was actually crying now, while Haru had paled.

"Seventy years… That's… That's five times my age!"

" _Ah, lad, listen to me, and listen well: if you see the light… Pass on! There's no use in lingering here. The cruel systems that utilizes humans as slaves doesn't just exist amongst the living, it happens amongst the undead too!"_ Haru momentarily recovered from his shock.

"You know, I've thought that for a while now, but… The way you speak by mixing old and modern words is really strange."

This sent Charlie into a monologue about the difficulties of the English language, how much it has changed, the rudeness of children these days, and a lot more that Haru just blocked out. Eventually they talked for a bit longer, before Haru drifted off to sleep.

 _Crap… I forgot to brush my teeth._

 _And I didn't ask him why he slams the doors if he doesn't want to spook us._

* * *

With a lot of effort Haru heaved himself off the bed and to the bathroom. In his sleepy state it took him a while to understand the scene he was seeing before him.

One: The bathroom was so cold that a bit of frost was covering the mirrors. That's way colder than usual.  
Two: Charlie was leaning over the toilet bowl.  
Three: Charlie wasn't barfing, he was _talking_. Through the toilet. _With somebody._

When he thought he had finally comprehended the scene, another couple of things happened.

One: Charlie noticed him, stood up, and walked over.  
Two: The door he had closed behind him slammed open, and the weird group was standing there.

The rest was kind of a blur. He heard strange spells being shouted, was grabbed by the shoulders, handed from somebody to _somebody else_ , kimono-girl – Masako – fainted, Mai took him and passed him over to ordinary-boy – Yasuhara – in order to rush forward.

She screamed something at brooding-the-small, and everything ceased. The other people seemed to be very confused, and stopped their hurling of strange, unintelligible words. During all that, Charlie just stood there in a relaxed manner.

Haru didn't even notice that he had been holding his breath until Charlie sauntered over and said, with a small trace of amusement audible: _"Haru, you do know that humans need to breathe, no?"_

Suddenly he was aware of the way his lungs screamed for air, and he quickly inhaled multiple times. Then he turned to Charlie and asked the question that was repeating itself over and over again in his head from the moment that he stepped into the bathroom.

"What the hell is going on?" Seeing that the others weren't about to answer, Charlie decided to step in and speed things up.

" _Well, you see, these guys are ghost hunters. In essence, the believe me to be a harmful and malevolent spirit that's haunting your family – or more specifically, this house – and were trying to exorcise me. Right now they are stumped because A) I'm not attacking them, B) we are holding a conversation, and C) their spells didn't have any effect what-so-ever on me. It's quite hilarious, actually."_

"Malevolent? You?" Haru couldn't help but look a bit incredulous at these words.

Grumpy-the-small chose that moment to intervene.

"Haru-san, have you interacted with this spirit?"

"Yes, I did. His name his Charlie and he works for 'Spooks'. Quite the cool guy, actually, but he talks weirdly… He has this strange habit of mixing old and new English sometimes."

"Did he ever harm you or otherwise attack you?"

"Harm me? _Charlie?_ The only thing he did was explaining a page in my novel to me. Nothing else." If Haru didn't know better, he would have thought that grumpy-the-small – _Shibuya-san_ – looked incredulous and did a double take.

"See? I told you he was alright, Naru." Mai was beaming at 'Naru', looking entirely too gleeful. "There's no haunting happening here."

" _Oh no, young lady, there is a haunting taking place all right. It is simply a one-time spooking due to a contract made with my superiors instead of a malevolent happenstance."_ Now the strange group was looking at Charlie strangely.

"What does he mean, Naru-bou?" Asked the one called monk.

"I… don't know." It seemed to physically hurt Naru to admit that.

" _Well, you see, I am an employee of –_ " Seeing that this was going to turn into another long discussion, Haru decided to cut in.

"Uh, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to sleep now. Charlie, don't talk with toilets, that's just weird." And with that, Haru left the bathroom, and went to bed, intend on just forgetting this entire thing happened.

* * *

The next day, the strange group left, explaining to Yumi-nee something about 'contracted ghosts' and 'fulfilled contracts', and that they 'didn't need to worry about it'.

The only thing Haru found was a letter on his desk, reading _'It was nice getting to know you, Tsukoto Haru. You are the first person to ever take the time to get to know me. Live a good life, lad. I promise that I will find a different way to communicate than toilets. Maybe a sink would work…  
Signed,  
Charles Brooke.  
P.S.: A pentagram doesn't work to keep ghosts out. I left you a charm, draw that when you want to be ghost-free. Just stick it to the walls, and ta da, no ghosties._

* * *

When he asked Yumi about it later, she said that the bathroom was always so cold because Charlie usually spent his nights and talked to his superiors there, and that the living room was cold because Charlie arrived there on the first night, so a trace of his presence lingered from seven to eight in the evening.

As an answer to his question of 'why did he leave?', he just got a 'well, he succeeded in scaring someone inside the house (namely the strange group), and that counted as completing his assignments. He still had other jobs he needed to get to, anyway,' leaving him feeling a bit dissatisfied.

In the end, Haru resolved to put the case behind him, and to never think about it again.

* * *

April the first found Haru building a small shrine for Charles Brooke, however.

It was only common courtesy, after all, to give somebody a present if they gave you one. And Haru certainly did receive a golden pocket watch on his birthday, with the words 'To TH. From CB' inscribed.

And somehow, this became a habit for the two of them.

November the 11th found little gifts, photos and the likes, on Haru's desk, with the initials 'TH' somewhere.

April the 1st found a small shrine with an offering created, with the initials 'CB' clearly visible. A bit of money usually accompanied it – after all, Charlie _did_ say that the afterlife was expensive

If his parents or Yumi-nee ever found it strange, they didn't say anything.

And when Haru started writing letters to Charlie, and receiving answers on his birthdays, nobody thought twice about it. After all, who were they to judge what their son did in his free time? At least he wasn't as obsessed with the paranormal as Yumi.

And when those answers started containing things about Aiko… who were they to comment on how Haru coped with the loss of his sister?

* * *

Normality returned to the Tsukoto household.

Well, as much as possible, anyways.

Much to Haru's chagrin, Charlie was still talking through toilets.

 **THE END.**

* * *

 **AN:**

No, I'm not dead. Yes, I'm still writing. Yes, updates will resume in a short while.

I was just sooo busy with my activities that there wasn't much time for writing if I still wanted to have a social life. I'm sorry.

This one-shot was my gateway back to writing, and I wrote it to get back to the Ghost Hunt fandom. Anyway, after I had finished it I thought it would be a shame not to post a complete one-shot, so yeah. I'll get back to my other two stories soon, but since Ifist need to reacquaint myself with my own plot, characters, and notes, I have no clue how long it will take. Apologies.

AM:ADJ will update before Healing, though.

Until next time,  
One Autumn Leaf.


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